Sugar and Spice: Sexuality and Adolescent Girls (Penguin women's studies)

Most studies of adolescence ignore gender, yet growing up is a quite different experience for girls and boys. Girls must deal with contradictory messages about their feminine identity - career or carer, autonomy or self-sacrifice, sexuality or motherhood in a society rife with double standards about women's sexuality. Drawing on the research from her original study but in the light of the changing social context of the 1990s, the author of this book examines how girls address the contradictions of women's conflicting roles and barriers and risks in accepting a feminist stance. Chapters include sexual relations in adolescence, mechanisms of defence and conformity, marriage and its alternatives, responsibility and masculine superiority.